AuthorTopic: Battlefield 1 Spring Update (Read 561 times)

DICE has launched The Spring Update for Battlefield 1 on all Platforms. Initiating platoon creation, the medic revival indicator, server admin settings, and more. Also in the update are server admin features such as being able to give other player admin rights, medics’ ability to indicate that they are on their way to a fallen teammate, four weapon variants, 19 new ribbons, and more. Read below to see the full details coming in this update:

PLATOONS

Get ready to team up. Today we are introducing the first wave of Platoons features for Battlefield 1. It’s something a lot of you have been asking for, and that we are very happy to finally release. Our focus in this initial release is to add some of the core and most essential Platoons features, such as the Platoon Tag, while building a robust system that we can continue to expand and improve going forward.

Below is an overview of what’s available in this initial release:

Create & Manage – Any player can create a Platoon: you are however limited to one General role, the highest rank and the rank a Platoon creator starts with, at any one time. When creating a Platoon, you can add the following info:

Name – This is required and must be 3-24 characters. Names are not exclusive.

Tag – This is required and consists of 1-4 alpha-numerical characters. Tags are not exclusive.

Description – This is optional and can be up to 256 characters long. Use this to describe your Platoon however you see fit.

Emblem – You can choose an emblem for the Platoon from your own personal Emblem gallery. The emblem is then “copied” to the Platoon, meaning that if you later update your own emblem, it’s not automatically reflected in the Platoon emblem.

Access Type – This selection defines how other players can and cannot join your Platoon:

• Open – Anyone can join the Platoon instantly.• Apply-to-Join – Anyone can apply; Platoon members with permissions can accept or reject applications.• Closed – No one can join the Platoon while in this state.

It’s always possible to change any of these values or settings at any time, as long as the Platoon member has permission to modify it.

General – This is the highest Platoon rank and there can only be one General in the Platoon at any one time. The creator will initially get this rank, but can transfer it to someone else (which must be done if you want to leave the Platoon). The General has access to everything, including the option to change name, tag, and even disband the Platoon.

Colonel – Colonel is the second-highest rank and has access to most Platoon management tools, such as editing the description, emblem, and the access type. This means they can step in for the General most of the time.

Lieutenant – The Lieutenant is the lowest level rank with management permissions. Mainly their ability is to accept or reject Platoon applications, if the Platoon is set to “Apply-to-Join”, as well as link their Rented Servers to the Platoon.

Private – Private is the initial rank any new member gets in the Platoon. This rank doesn’t give you access to anything, besides the fact that you are now a member of the Platoon and can represent it and join other members playing. As a rule of thumb, you can always promote someone else to one rank lower than your own, and demote or kick members that are one rank or lower than your own. Rank permissions also always stack, so if you’re promoted you can know for certain that you have the same access as before – and more.

Find & Join – Platoons is all about playing together. In the “Find Platoon” section, you will sometimes get a list of recommended Platoons to join, which is currently based on other Platoons that your friends are representing. Once you’ve found a Platoon, its access type will determine how easy it is for you to join. Maybe you can simply join it right away, or you must apply. If you’re unlucky it’s closed, and that’s that.

Representing and Playing with Your Platoon – For many players, representing your Platoon is what it’s all about and we have tried to make this process easy, smooth, and awesome with the new system. First, you can always only represent one Platoon at any given time, and you can also choose not to represent any. You will retain your membership and rank in the Platoon; it’s basically just something you toggle. When you represent a Platoon, its tag will automatically be displayed in front of your name and its emblem will automatically be displayed wherever your emblem is usually displayed. This essentially “overrides” your equipped emblem; when you represent a Platoon, we want you to really represent it.

Besides having the tag and emblem, if you fill up a squad with other players that represent the same Platoon, the squad will automatically be renamed to the Platoon’s name. Furthermore, if your represented Platoon contributed the most to a Flag Capture (with at least two members present), a pennant carrying your Platoon emblem will be shown on the flag pole. More bragging rights for you.

We currently employ limitations of 100 members per Platoon – if your group is more than 100 people, we suggest you create more Platoons with the same name, tag, emblem and description – and you can at max be a member of 10 Platoons. This includes pending applications; if you are a member of 8 Platoons and have 2 Platoons with pending applications to join, you will not be able to join or apply for any other Platoon unless you leave a Platoon or cancel an application. Increasing these limits are something we will consider going forward.

One of our primary focus areas has also been to more easily facilitate playing together in groups, so we’ve added the ability to always see where your Platoon is playing and join them.

NEW FEATURES

Medic Revive Intent

If you’ve ever played as a Medic, dashing through hailstorms of bullets and explosions disregarding your own safety to get to a fallen team mate, only to have them “skip” at the very last second, you know how frustrating it can be.

You can now “spot” the dead player to indicate that you are on your way to them. The player will see your name blinking in the death screen and show as “incoming medic”. The medic will also shout that he is coming.

If they decide to skip anyway, they didn’t deserve to be saved in the first place.

Server Administration

This is one of the areas where we are getting a lot of feedback, so it feels great to be able to finally release some new features to the community:

• Server admins can now add other players to a list to give them admin rights to the server.• A server can now be set to need lower numbers before pre-round ends (from 20 to 6).• We are also adding the ability to use password protected servers.

Just as with the other parts of the game, server administration functionality is something we will continuously improve over time. This is the beginning. Please keep giving us feedback on what to improve next.

Ribbons

We brought in the Ribbon system from earlier Battlefield titles with the Winter Update. We’re very happy with how it turned out, so with the Spring Update we’ve decided to expand the system by adding 19 new Ribbons.

The focus with the new Ribbons is to promote teamwork. You will now get Ribbons for performing tasks such as spotting, reviving, resupplying, repairing, healing, and more.

• Conquest – Adjusted the size of some of the capture areas (made them bigger in general).

• Conquest – Reduced the number of tanks from 4 to 3 per team and moved one of the 3 tank spawns to the closest capture point (A and E). By this, the enemy team can deny them and influence the tank situation on the map. It also adds more value to points that get less attentions by the players.

• Conquest – Increased the tank respawn time to add more value to their use.

• Conquest – Reduced the airplanes per team from 2 to 1.

• Conquest – Reduced the hero kit spawn respawn time.

• Rush – Weakened the defenders by adjusting their spawns in the first and third sectors.

• Fixed issue where the Legacy Southpaw control scheme for the Field Gun made the RS have both Strafe and Look functionality.

• Fixed issue where using a joystick alongside a mouse would cause the keymapping to revert to default functions.

• Added advanced gameplay option for adjusting the Stick Aiming Acceleration. Allows setting the soldier aiming when using a stick, as seen in Battlefield 4.

• Removed invalid binding for Left Alternate controller with the horse. Gallop and Melee were being bound to left stick click, which is not possible. Removed the melee attack binding and from now on only gallop will trigger (melee attack would never trigger anyway).

• Fixed a bug where vaulting could be triggered while transitioning into prone.

• Diving underwater and resurfacing can now only be triggered when the soldier has finished the previous dive or resurface animation.

• Fixed a bug where certain inputs would stop working after vaulting.

• Separated dead zones for joysticks and gamepads.

• Added options to adjust the axial dead zones of the gamepad sticks and the joystick.